Thy life’s journey lies along its own path and I cannot share thy journey — but I can walk beside thee. And I will.
— Diana Gabaldon
When I arrived down south, I was very eager to start painting and it took me a few days to adjust to the very warm and humid temperatures. My paint would immediately dry up on the paper because of the heat, then high winds came in, then it rained and then it was beautiful again. Oh! Did I mention the sand falling into my colour palette and putting tiny little grains in all of my paints? I have already mentioned in another post that for me, I need to figure out which “blue” that I need to use in order to set the tone of the painting. To find the correct blue that represents the sky as well as the sea takes a series of tests (I will post these tomorrow). I also struggled with the colour of the sand… as you can see, I was not in my environment! Everything was new! I also realized that I should have had a colour palette chosen for the south, and not my regular colours. So I started out with Cobalt blue and it turned out muddy. Then I tried Cerulean Blue and its granular quality become much too apparent in the heat and it seemed to be streaking and falling off the paper. I then regretted having brought “thin” watercolour sketchbooks as I would have needed much more water than I could put on it. Then I had an aha moment, and I tried using Winsor Blue and some Aureolin Yellow and it was almost a perfect match for the emerald sea and the sky… yeah! However, just before having that aha moment, I had painted this with Prussian Blue. Ooooh! The woes of painting -)))
En arrivant dans le sud, j’avais tellement hâte de commencer à peindre. Mais peindre en aquarelle avec des températures oscillant dans les 40C, avec des journées de coups de vent, ensuite de la pluie, et ensuite des journèes d’une beauté incroyable, il y a beaucoup d’ajustement à faire, et étant donné que tout était nouveau, et que je n’étais pas dans mon environnement, eh bien, il y a eu beaucoup de ratés! Quand je commence à peindre, je réfléchis toujours à quel bleu que je vais utiliser pour donner l’atmosphère ou le ton à ma peinture. J’ai donc commencé avec du Bleu Cobalt et il était trop brumeux. Ensuite j’ai esasyé le Bleu Céruléen, mais sa granulation semblait vouloir tomber en bas de la page! Ensuite j’ai essayé Bleu Prusse qui était OK, mais j’ai eu un moment de nirvana quand j’ai utilisé le Bleu de Winsor… il était parfait pour démontrer le vert émeraude de la mer. Par contre, cette peinture a été faite avec du Bleu de Prusse. Ahhh! Les difficultés rencontrées sont en fait, je l’espère bien, un cheminement vers une évolution quelconque.
Paper: Handbook Travelogue Series
Colours: Aureolin Yellow, Raw Sienna, Q. Rose & Prussian Blue
Fountain Pen: Pilot Prera F
Ink: Noodlers’ Lexington Grey
Painting to see : Peindre pour voir 